Something went very wrong on American Airlines flight 614 from Sacramento to Dallas this Sunday, December 6th. An American Airlines stewardess having an extremely bad day flipped the frak out on a first class passenger for asking for a glass of OJ and gave him a written warning from the captain for, “threatening, intimidating, or interfering with a crewmember.” Here’s an eyewitness account:
UPDATE: American Airlines Responds To Psychotic OJ Incident
UPDATE: Delta Offers Gold Status To Victims Of Psychotic American Airlines Stewardess
David Koss wrote us, “About 45 minutes into the flight I was awakened by a flight attendant named Helen, screaming at the man sitting in front of my wife. It was so loud, I could hear it over my headphones and the music playing. She was going off about how she didn’t care if he was Platinum or Executive Platinum. I found this to be very odd. When she was done screaming, she came over to where my wife was sitting to ask what she wanted to eat. Then she said, “Sorry about that, he was just bitching.” First of all, such language shouldn’t be used by a flight attendant. Second of all, what business is it of hers to discuss the situation with other passengers?
Since I take the word of the other 5 friends I work with (including my wife) as truth, I will describe the events that led to the outburst. Helen was already having a very bad day. She acted upset to be working this job, which in this economy she should be grateful for, and was irritated at everyone. All my friends could tell that she was pissed. She was pissed that she was there, that people were blocking aisles while she was serving meals, and that they were getting up to use the restroom. She violently slid my friend’s breakfast onto his tray, nearly spilling everything and then headed to the man in front of my wife. He had trouble getting his tray out, and she stood there rolling her eyes at him. When he finally got it out, she dropped the breakfast hard onto the tray. He asked if he could have some orange juice. This is when it hit the fan. “This must be your first time in first class,” she said. He asked what she meant by that. He told her he was actually on the flight that made him Executive Platinum for the 10th year in a row. She said, “You obviously don’t know how this works.” He told her in a calm voice that she was being very condescending. That’s when she blew up on him and woke me up. He started looking the other way and asked her to stop yelling at him. The entire first class section was
watching her go nuts.
She went to the front of the plane and disappeared for a while after making the previously mentioned comment to my wife. The man was shocked. He started looking around and asked the rest of us if we just saw what happened. We started talking to him about it, and didn’t know why she was acting this way. At one point Helen went into the cockpit to talk to the captain. We all took turns talking to each other, and everyone saw the same thing. Our friend Barth was sitting on the opposite side of the isle, diagonally to the man who asked for orange juice. About an hour after the incident they began having a lengthy discussion. We all thought there may be police waiting at the gate when we arrived and wanted to let him know we had his back. The flight attendant came out from hiding, walked straight up to Barth, kneeled down and said, “Do you have something you need to say to me?” Barth said, “The two of us are having a private conversation.” She got up and walked back to the front. We knew something was terribly wrong with this woman. Now she was confronting other passengers now as well. He stated that it would be best not to continue this conversation until we were on the ground. The other two flight attendants were as nice as could be. Nicer than usual actually. We were all too wound up to go back to sleep. My wife and I had about three hours of sleep the night before and had a long day ahead, but sleep was out of the question. We were actually nervous to be in the presence of such an unstable individual.
Helen came up to the OJ man, and asked him to come to the front with him. He started to get up, but I yelled at him, along with my other friends not to go up there. If he had a private conversation with her, there would be no witnesses, and she could tell authorities that he said anything she wanted. He stayed put in his seat. She came back to his seat with a written warning she said was from the captain. It stated that he may be in violation of Federal Law for “Threatening, intimidating, or interfering with a crewmember (section 91.11).” She said, “I didn’t want to have to do this in front of every one, but here you go.” According to the document, he could be put in prison for asking for his orange juice.
The tension in the cabin was mounting. We knew at this point someone would be waiting for us when we arrived. We were ready to give a statement. She called the older man that was in front of OJ man into the front of the plane for a private statement. That man would not have heard a word she said from behind his seat. It was way too noisy. He looked to be in his 70′s as well. She came back and asked if anyone else wanted to be a witness. We all said no. We didn’t want to say a word to her. She told us that she had witnesses as well. At the end of the flight, she asked us if we wanted anything else. There was no way I was going to eat anything that this woman was serving.
Helen had made our flight miserable. Upon arriving, we were greeted by a representative of the airline. She had been called ahead by the captain to meet us on the jet bridge. She had no idea so many people would be there to report what happened. We went to the gate and all gave a statement about what happened. She had someone else that had more relevance to the situation come down and talk to the man. This man stated that the Feds would probably have to investigate due to this warning being issued. The slips aren’t to be given out unless it’s a very big deal. We all wished him well and exchanged information. He had another flight to catch, and we were all glad to be on the ground safe.
Our group has about 130 people that fly 30 weeks a year. At an average of $300 per flight, that’s over 1 million dollars a year spent. And I’ve been on the road with these people for nearly 10 years. So this is what we get for over $10 million in sales. If Helen doesn’t like people, she should find a job like flipping burgers. That way, she won’t have to talk to the customers. This woman’s behavior is completely unacceptable and is a perfect example of what I’ve been seeing in AA flight attendants for years now. They don’t want to be there, make up their own rules that don’t reflect the company, and have huge disdain for the people paying their salary… the customers.
-Dave Koss”
The real terrorists can be found flying first class, drinking orange juice.
Reached for comment, American Airlines said they will look into the matter.
American Airlines Says Asking for Orange Juice may Violate Federal Law [KOSSOME]
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Some random thoughts:
*Is Helen’s last name Waite? (“You want service? Go to HelenWaite!”)
*Some posters mentioned AA’s FA union. AA is based in Texas, a right-to-work state. I’m wondering how that factors into the union protecting crazy Helen.
*Here is what I DO think will protect crazy Helen: AA employees are encouraged to be evil. Why do I say that? Well, I used to not only work for one of their vendors, but I lived in a subdivision bordering their HQ. My neighbors who worked for AA were the most harassing, wild-party-throwing, siccing-their-dogs-on-me, pulling-guns-on-me, setting their own houses on fire jackasses I ever had the displeasure of knowing. Secondly, in my job supporting the AA account, I was routinely harassed by AA project managers who consistently refused signoff on projects. Here’s why: When AA finds “fault” with what a vendor delivers, their contracts deem that they can delay payment. If fault is found forever, then payment never materializes. A “fault” could be as simple as 2 pages in a binder of engineering drawings being out of order, for instance. (Pages that were in order when you sent them but were switched later. Obviously this was many years ago when we still printed paper drawings…)
*AA is the most evil fucking company and sucks a bag of dicks.
*Wow do I have PMS today. But at least I”m not acting like Helen!
Thank you for standing up for this guy.
I appreciate a positive comment. Seems like a bunch of them (mostly on fark.com) just call me a douche for writing about customer service.
Captive Airline Passengers…
What the airlines have going for themselves here, and they know it, is that Homeland Security now gives them carte blanch to treat passengers’ and their expressed concerns with total disregard under the new anti-terrorist laws. With this legal coverage in place, there is no incentive for them to do anything different from their current disgraceful practices regarding the treatment of their captive customers.
Any passenger that even mildly protests their treatment inside of an aircraft, can now be heavily prosecuted for “interfering with” or “intimidating” flight attendants. Under Federal Law, US Code § 46504, a passenger can get from 20 years to life in prison for making an airline employee feel uneasy.
Even just visually complaining by looking at a flight attendant the “wrong way” (intimidation), under the law, any flight crew member can now subjectively interpret that you are attempting to interfere with a flight crew and you can automatically be considered a terrorist suspect. Even stating you concerns can be interpreted as they please.
You can be arrested and then who knows where you’ll end up, maybe in Guantanamo with no habeas corpus rights or maybe you’ll just be disappeared. So just remember, when you’re aboard a plane, just sit down, shut up and take it…because you’re not only just another passenger…now you’re also just another suspected terrorist.
U.S. Code as of: 01/19/04
Section 46504.
Interference with flight crew members and attendants:
An individual on an aircraft in the special aircraft jurisdiction
of the United States who, by assaulting or intimidating a flight
crew member or flight attendant of the aircraft, interferes with
the performance of the duties of the member or attendant or lessens
the ability of the member or attendant to perform those duties, or
attempts or conspires to do such an act, shall be fined under title
18, imprisoned for not more than 20 years, or both. However, if a
dangerous weapon is used in assaulting or intimidating the member
or attendant, the individual shall be imprisoned for any term of
years or for life.
Do…..not…..fly. If you must, don’t fly American. If you still decide to use American I have no pity for you if Helen comes for you. Drive, take a train, carpool, take a bus, phone and stay home….consider all these things first before flying.
On the other hand, first class passengers can be arrogant, rude snobs.
U.S. airlines should follow the lead of most Asian airlines. Only hire single, young, attractive women. Seriously, many of these flight attendants cop such a bad attitude after 8-10 years that they do their airline a disservice. Get the blue hairs out of the sky.
That sky waitress has an inflated sense of her own importance. I was sincerely hoping this story would conclude with someone asking Helen to “make me a sammich”.
I’m interested to know how this federal warning panned out. And if the man now has an aversion to OJ.
Not worth complaining about. People are people.
I visited AA’s customer relations page and told them how important it was to me for them to make a statement about this claim. After recently reading the hilarious story on AirTran 297 and AirTran’s debunking, I would really like to hear what AA has to say. I got this response 19 hours later:
Not quite taking it seriously, but maybe they are performing an investigation.
You are correct. We are looking into this and taking it very seriously.
I have been a American Advantage Gold elite member for 15 years, all “pleasure”. I do not fly for business.
I live in Maui, and my parents lived in Westchester county, NY. I often fly to NY trough Dallas.
I have encountered Helen on many flights. She has a reputation as a major bitch. You would be amazed how many people have told me about her. Apparently she has been with AA for over 25 years. She should have been fired a long time ago.
What if there was an emergency? The passengers on that flight from Sacremento to Dallas in First knew they were dealing with a lunitic and didn’t trust her. Would they obey her instructions? She very well could have been responcable for their deaths. THis is VERY serious.
I had an encounter with her on flight 7 from Dallas to Maui, and went up to the gallery to speak to her, asking her is I had offended her somehow. The way to deal with an difficult individual is through kindness, and when she dropped her defenses, I told her “Honey will get you a lot further than vinegar” I wrote a letter to AA about her and got no reply.
I must say that I fly on AA nearly exclusively because of how nice the employees are. If you think AA employee’s are pissed off, try flying United. I had a simular experience with a Helen type F/A on United, also in First to Hawaii, I wrote to United, and because of their response, and dinosour management policies, I’ve never flied United again. (I was premium elite on UA too) The Airline employee’s are getting screwed, and the passengers get the rage. Just another example of bad management. If your emplouyee’s are treated well, the passengers will be too. You would think, especially in times like these, that the airlines would realize that their freequnt fliers are their best customers and do everything to make us happy, because we pay their salaries and do have a choice. I’m glad that Helen, and others like her, will finally get their due, and be fired. They should not be in cutomer service positions, as they do not have the secret of life; How you treat others, is how you will be treated.
Jonathan. Maui, Hawaii
Moral of the story?
Fly Virgin America.
Out of the 5 of us, 2 missed their flight from SFO-JFK.
They put the 2 on the next flight and upgraded them to First Class free of charge because they were mentally traumatized.
Mind you, we’re Indians.
Wow for about the 8 millionth time on the internet, it’s “aisle” not “isle”. are people ever going to get this right? How did this ever start? It’s almost starting to become like looser/loser and there/their/they’re or you’re/your/yore. Just saying. Consumerist, please add a [sic] for such inaccuracies in the future.
That said, Helen should be ****canned immediately. I can only wonder what she said to the pilot, which was clearly nothing like the truth. and just what the he** did her snarky comments like “you obviously don’t know how this works” really mean, anyway? Nobody is allowed to ask for orange juice in first class? Heck I’ve asked for, and gotten it, in coach dozens of times on several U.S. carriers. Clearly his request was well within the realm of how “it” works.
i had a very similar incident on an AA flight on my first trip to USA back in Dec 2006 from frankfurt to dfw….when i asked for a glass of water the flight attendant turned around and told everyone in general “Ok, people, so i just woke up from a nap so if everyone could just hold on their order!!…” and then walked to the back….i got my glass of water 1-1/2 hours later at their scheduled snack time… a fellow traveller on that same flight asked for diet coke when they were serving the snacks and was told that they were out of diet….while she poured him a glass of regular coke, an attendant from the business class came over and asked for a diet coke and our lady blatantly took one out of her cart and handed it over to her and then continued to pour the regular coke for the guy next to me as if nothing out of the ordinary happened…when i asked the guy why no one complained he said it was pointless and the only thing that would come off it was that they would black list him as a problematic traveler and it would be a hassle for him every time he boarded a flight…..i totally agree with him as witnessed by OJ travelers predicament ….i am just thankful that the other travelers with him took the time and effort to vouch for him….the crazy attendant deserves….i understand if someone has a bad day…but that doesnt give u the right to be rude…esp when its ur job to be courteous….she should have at least had the decency to apologize….
We take incidents like these very seriously. A full internal investigation is underway and we are actively looking into this matter. We’d like to say more, but cannot go further until we determine the outcome. This will take a few more days to resolve.
If you all would have been flying a real airline (Southwest) where they dont charge for bags this would have never happened. He probaly would have got 2 glasses. so remember if customer service matters fly Southwest where they never have a bad day.
Helen has endeared herself to so many people, maybe she needs her own website to shine a light on her behavior. When AA starts the legal wrangling to shut the site down, the ensuing publicity may be a good thing.
American Airlines has been in communication with those customers who were most directly affected by this incident. During that communication, we have apologized to them and taken other appropriate steps. In addition, we apologize to any customer who was inconvenienced by this situation. As to the flight attendant in question, American has taken specific action related to that employee. Because this is a private personnel matter, we cannot disclose the nature of those actions.
It is one thing to be rude. It is another thing to abuse the federal laws as a bullying or persecution tool. The later has to be dealt with harshly. Otherwise we will have FAs terrorizing people whorse than KGB did to their people.
Wow…the funny thing is I’m almost certain I have flown with Helen as well…on First class (using miles)…and she is a case! My ex. boyfriend who flies a lot from SFO – NY say AA First Class Stewardess are THE WORST…Rude…They just don’t care about their jobs, because its nothing to do with how good or bad you do it, but seniority. Maybe Unions need an overhaul? Maybe Airlines like these need a change…the comment about her being suited for flipping burgers…maybe – sounds like she forgot to take her meds and she needs more than just getting fired from her job & flipping burgers (she could go postal on her co-workers…)…she needs HELP (lying to the captain and trying to get the guy in Federal Trouble…this is equivalent of a woman calling “false rape” and other shit. Terrible. Of course none of this will happen, AA will give her a slap on the hand for “behaving badly” and passengers will just have to deal with it. I will say this, some things I really dislike about Southwest…BUT their flight attendants are always awesome.
On Monday I flew on a full flight from Houston to Oakland on Southwest Air. I had the sniffles and, during the course of the flight, asked for and received four cans of OJ, each with a glass of ice. The flight attendants were great. I have flown Southwest for years and have never had a bad experience with this airline. SW employees love their jobs and it shows.
On Wednesday, I noticed this article:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idAFN1524012220091216
which says, in part,
“Southwest Air tops best U.S. places to work-survey
Wed Dec 16, 2009
By Ellen Wulfhorst
NEW YORK, Dec 16 (Reuters) – Southwest Airlines Co (LUV.N) topped the list of the 50 best U.S. places to work, based upon employee opinions, according to research released on Wednesday. …”
I believe it. SW staff is always pleasant and sometimes they are even funny.
I recently faced a similar situation, although not as bad as this one. It happened on Dec 9th flight 970 coming back from Managua, Nicaragua to Miami, Florida. I asked for a glass of water and the FA lady in the business class cabin came unglued. She was rude, for absolutely no reason at all, and told me she had offered one before and I was distracted. She was nasty. I just told her thanks and forget the water. I must say though that on the same flight, on Dec 19th, the business class attendants, two gentlemen (one was from Chile I believe) were very nice and courteous and provided us with fabulous service during the flight. In fact, most often than not the FA’s are courteous and amiable. However, American needs to learn from the Orange Juice incident. They need to learn that they do have these few bad apples and cannot simply give the FA the benefit of the doubt. Had the OJ passenger had not witnesses he could have been unfairly prosecuted and maybe even jailed. They need to review their procedures so that a certain code of ethics and passengers bill of rights are enforced on all flights, perhaps naming a senior FA in-flight customer service supervisor. One who will hear the passenger’s side of the story and/or can question other passengers as witnesses. It is too easy for an ill-intentioned FA to go to a busy pilot and give his/her own spin to the story. These procedures would also work on the airlines’ favor when there are in fact unruly passengers interfering with flight attendants.
American also needs to review their training procedures when it comes to customer service on the ground and on the back-office. Going back to my incident. On the same flight, My 4 bags (ironically stamped with Priority Service) were left behind (I was traveling with my wife). I waited on the belt until no more luggage was coming out. I asked an AA representative for help, she carelessly with a ‘your tough luck’ attitude send me to luggage claim. I filled my claim for lost luggage, they later called me and told me the bags would be delivered by 11am the next day. I called at 12+ to tell them they had not arrived. They tried to tell me it was my fault because I was late to the carousel. It was then that I finally got a little irritated and told the lady I had been the first passenger there and reminded until the last piece of luggage came out. Far from apologizing she tried to argue with me that the computer said that and therefore they were right. I finally got my luggage later that day. I called Customer Service and reported everything I just wrote here. I told them that the worse part of it was that I never got an apology, an “I am sorry for your inconvenience”, nothing. Even the Customer service lady was very ‘business as usual’, she did say I am sorry but obviously thought 5,000 miles would take care of the deal. I told her I did not care for the miles, what I wanted is a written apology which I am still waiting for.
I like American Airlines, I am a platinum member and have close to 1.1 million flown miles with them. I like to travel comfortably when I can as I travel often, and my calling Customer Service was a ‘bona fide’ effort to help them fix this deterioration in an aspect of service that is so easy to fix in my opinion: “Treat the passenger with respect and courtesy.” But it became evident to me that it wouldn’t help. There is something deeper going on at American which they need to address or it will cost them dearly in the near future. If some here knows of a more effective mechanism to get this message across to AA Senior Management, I would appreciate the input…